Case Study- Westbrook Industrial- Finance and Funding Support
Growth Hub Case Study 17/01/2022
Helped to access £11,000 grant funding
Westbrook Industrial is a manufacturer of labelling and integrated safety solutions as well as a provider of non-core products and services direct to manufacturers and suppliers of MHE (material handling equipment) and storage solutions. It trades under two divisions, ASG Services for end user customers and Warehouse Partners for resellers operating in the Logistics and Warehousing sector.
Based in Warrington, the company offers warehouse labelling, line marking, barriers, safety signage and safety netting solutions.
Keen to enable sustainable business change and growth, Westbrook developed a programme – Project Cube – to increase productivity and growth across the company.
Consulting Project Manager, Salim Sheikh, who has championed this initiative, was contacted by Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub who worked with Salim to understand what support was needed to make the project a success as well as help support business improvement and growth. Business Growth Broker, Cherie Semper at the Growth Hub, highlighted the support available, specifically the Access To Finance Programme, run by Blue Orchid, which supports businesses who wish to grow with partial funding of consultancy projects which will enable growth.
Westbrook Industrial submitted a successful application to the Access To Finance Programme, showing how funding through the scheme could help them to achieve growth. As part of its partnership with the Growth Hub and successful funding application, Westbrook was awarded a £11K grant (33% of a total project budget of £34K). The funding has helped to kickstart a digital transformation programme, known internally as "Project Cube", which has included strategic planning workshops (at Board and employee level) to help identify several key projects that will drive growth and improvement across the business. Additionally, a new "employee focused" intranet has been created that reflects Westbrook's "people-centric" culture whilst also providing a digital platform to enable hybrid-working.
Salim said: "When we were looking at launching Project Cube, we wanted to make sure that we knew what funding was out there and have a full picture of external resources we could tap into.
"The funding we received from Blue Orchid via the Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub enabled us to kickstart Project Cube and hit the ground running. The growth achieved to date and improvements across the business would not have been possible without the Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub. Since the beginning of the scheme, we've been able to highlight and harness growth opportunities across the business.
"The team at the Growth Hub were absolutely fantastic to work with and I cannot praise them highly enough – they gave 110% to everything and made sure I was aware of all of the opportunities available to us but allowed me to consider whether it was they were right for us."
Through the funding support and the impact of Project Cube, Westbrook Industrial has increased its turnover by 50% and have expanded by an additional four people.
Andy Devaney, Business Innovation Director at Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub, commented: "Like many of our businesses, Westbrook Industrial felt the impact of Coronavirus and responded by developing Project Cube.
"The project was fundamentally focused on people and systems initially, with the purpose to drive innovation and product development, all underpinned by culture. We understood how important this project was to the business for future growth and were glad to work with them and Blue Orchid to access the grant funding needed to get it started.
"We look forward to seeing Westbrook Industrial carry on the success of Project Cube and capitalise on the opportunities from it."
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